United States Africa Command Public Affairs Office 8 February 2012

Please find attached news clips for February 8, 2012, along with upcoming events of interest and UN News Service briefs. Of interest in todays clips: U.S. State Department updates its factsheet for regional efforts to counter Lord's Resistance Army. In Mali: World charity medical doctors have left Mali after outbreak of fighting by Tuareg rebels. In Liberia: Former Liberian rebel leader George Boley is to be deported from the United States over his role in the West African country's civil war in the 1990s. In South Sudan: A group of Chinese workers kidnapped by rebels in southern Sudan 11 days ago have been freed and flown to Kenya, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs Please send questions or comments to: publicaffairs@usafricom.mil 421-2687 (+49-711-729-2687) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------Top News related to U.S. Africa Command and Africa U.S. Support to Regional Efforts To Counter the Lord's Resistance Army (State.gov) http://www.state.gov/p/af/rls/fs/2012/183487.htm Fact Sheet Washington, DC Updated February 7, 2012 In May 2010, President Obama signed into law the Lords Resistance (LRA) Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, which reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to support regional partners efforts to end the atrocities of the LRA in central Africa. Mali: Tuareg rebellion forces medical staff to withdraw (BBC) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16924177
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February 7, 2012 By Non-Attributed Author Medical charity Doctors of the World has pulled out of northern Mali following a recent outbreak of fighting by Tuareg rebels. 'Lone wolf' terror threat warning (BBC) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16920643 February 7, 2012 By Non-Attributed Author The UK could face a growing threat from "lone wolf" terrorists returning from fighting overseas in the next few years, a think tank has warned. Liberia ex-warlord George Boley to be deported from US (BBC) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16924744 February 7, 2012 By Non-Attributed Author Former Liberian rebel leader George Boley is to be deported from the US over his role in the West African country's civil war in the 1990s. Explosion rocks military base in Nigeria (Al Jazeera) http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/02/201227131737968142.html February 7, 2012 By Non-Attributed author A blast has rocked an area near a military barracks in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna but the cause of the explosion and the number of casualties are still not clear, according to an official. Kidnapped Chinese workers released in Sudan (France 24) http://www.france24.com/en/20120207-kidnapped-chinese-workers-freed-sudan-southkordofan-state-embassy-kenya February 7, 2012 By News Wires A group of Chinese workers "kidnapped" by rebels in southern Sudan 11 days ago have been freed and flown to Kenya, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday. Thousands rally in Dakar for new anti-Wade protests (France 24) http://www.france24.com/en/20120207-dakar-anti-wade-protests-third-term-senegalpresidential-election February 7, 2012 By AFP Thousands of Senegalese opposition supporters marched through central Dakar Tuesday to ratchet up the pressure for President Abdoulaye Wade to abandon his bid for a controversial third term in office. Somalia: Saving Somalia? - Reflections On the Last 20 Years, and the Upcoming 'London Conference' (All Africa)
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http://allafrica.com/stories/201202070843.html February 7, 2012 By Richard Dowden If I were a Somali I would thank Allah for the pirates. For more than 20 years the world has stood by while successive civil wars destroyed the country, killing hundreds of thousands of people by bullets, disease and starvation and reducing what was once a prosperous land to a war zone. But the seizure of more than 200 ships by kids with guns in small craft has changed all that. Cameroon: Economy Suffers As Boko Haram Infiltrates Country (All Africa) http://allafrica.com/stories/201202071288.html February 7, 2012 By Ngala Killian Chimtom Ahmadou Lamine has been forced to close his business selling fuel imported from Nigeria, known locally as "zoa-zoa", because of the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram. Mozambique sees $50 bln gas investment over a decade (Reuters) http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE81609Q20120207 February 7, 2012 CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Mozambique expects $50 billion to be spent developing its liquid natural gas (LNG) industry over the next ten years, the southern African nation's mineral resource minister said on Tuesday. DOD Needs Cost-conscious Acquisitions Employees, Official Says (Defense.gov) http://www.defense.gov//News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=67093 February 7, 2012 By Lisa Daniel American Forces Press Service The Defense Department acquisitions, technology and logistics office will need some of the brightest, most cost-conscious workers asking tough, introspective questions to meet the strategic and budgetary demands of the future, the offices acting director said here yesterday. ### ------------------------------------------------------------------------------UN News Service Africa Briefs http://www.un.org/apps/news/region.asp?Region=AFRICA (Full Articles on UN Website) In wake of elections in DR Congo, UN urges all sides to pursue dialogue 7 February The top United Nations envoy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today stressed the need for all parties to use legal means and dialogue to settle
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differences in the aftermath of recent elections so as to advance stability and peace in the country. UN agency implements strategy to conclude three refugee crises is Africa 7 February The United Nations refugee agency reported today that it has embarked on the implementation of a set of strategies to conclude three of Africas long-standing refugee crises that involved helping people uprooted by old conflicts in Angola, Liberia and Rwanda. Kenyan running aces to help mark milestone for UN environment agency 7 February Two top Kenyan long-distance runners will be on hand to show support for the conservation efforts of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), joining the public in a half-marathon race in Nairobi later this month, to mark the agencys 40th anniversary. UN agency steps up help as renewed fighting in Mali uproots 20,000 people 7 February The United Nations refugee agency has deployed staff to assist some 20,000 people who have been forced to flee fighting between Government troops and rebel Tuareg groups in Mali. ### ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Upcoming Events of Interest: FEBRUARY 08 WHEN: 2:00 3:30 p.m. WHAT: Brookings Institution Discussion on Meet the Press at Brookings: The Egypt Revolution One Year On. Speakers: Moderator: David Gregory, Anchor, Meet the Press, NBC News; Panelists: Thomas Friedman, Columnist, The New York Times; Shadi Hamid, Director of Research, Brookings Doha Center; Martin S. Indyk, Vice President and Director, Foreign Policy; and Tamara Wittes, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, U.S. Department of State. WHERE: Brookings, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, NW CONTACT: 202-797-6105, events@brookings.edu; web site: www.brookings.edu SOURCE: Brookings event announcement at: http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/0208_mtp_egypt_revolution.aspx ### -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------New on www.africom.mil U.S. Navy Delegation Wraps Up Moroccan Staff Talks Visit
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http://www.africom.mil/getArticle.asp?art=7605&lang=0 February 7, 2012 By Petty Officer 2nd Class Jeff Troutman U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa CASABLANCA, Morocco, Rear Admiral Kenneth "K.J." Norton, deputy chief of staff for strategy, resources, and plans at U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, and a team of delegates completed a three-day visit to Casablanca, Morocco, to engage in staff talks with the Royal Moroccan Navy, January 3, 2012. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------FULLTEXT U.S. Support to Regional Efforts To Counter the Lord's Resistance Army (State.gov) http://www.state.gov/p/af/rls/fs/2012/183487.htm Fact Sheet Washington, DC Updated February 7, 2012 In May 2010, President Obama signed into law the Lords Resistance (LRA) Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, which reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to support regional partners efforts to end the atrocities of the LRA in central Africa. For more than two decades, the LRA has murdered, raped, and kidnapped tens of thousands of innocent men, women, and children. In 2011, the LRA reportedly committed over 250 attacks. As of August 2011, the United Nations estimates that approximately 440,000 people are displaced across Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and South Sudan as a result of LRA activity. The United States comprehensive, multi-year strategy seeks to help the Governments of Uganda, CAR, the DRC, and South Sudan as well as the African Union and United Nations to mitigate and end the threat posed to civilians and regional stability by the LRA. The strategy outlines four key objectives for U.S. support: (1) the increased protection of civilians, (2) the apprehension or removal of Joseph Kony and senior LRA commanders from the battlefield, (3) the promotion of defections and support of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of remaining LRA fighters, and (4) the provision of continued humanitarian relief to affected communities. To advance this strategy, the United States has sent a small number of military advisers to the LRAaffected region to enhance the capacity of the national militaries to pursue senior LRA commanders and to protect civilians. The U.S. Embassies in the region are also working closely with bilateral and multilateral partners to advance the strategy, and the Department of State has deployed a field representative to augment this engagement. The lines of effort in which the United States is engaged include:
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Increasing Civilian Protection: The protection of civilians is a priority for the U.S. strategy. National governments bear responsibility for civilian protection, and the United States is working to enhance their capacity to fulfill this responsibility. The United States also strongly supports the United Nations peacekeeping missions in the DRC and South Sudan and the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the CAR. We continue to work with the United Nations to help augment its efforts in the LRA-affected region. At the same time, we are working with other partners on projects to help reduce the vulnerability of LRA-affected communities and increase their capacity to make decisions related to their own safety. To promote the protection of civilians, the Department of State and USAID are funding communication networks, including high-frequency radios and cell phone towers to enhance community-based protection in Bas- and Haut-Uele districts in the DRC. Enhancing Regional Efforts to Apprehend LRA Top Commanders: On November 14, 2011, the United Nations Security Council commended ongoing efforts by national militaries in the region to address the threat posed by the LRA, and welcomed international efforts to enhance their capacity in this respect. The Council noted the efforts of the United States, which, since 2008, has provided over $40 million in critical logistical support, equipment and training to enhance counter-LRA operations by regional militaries. On October 14, 2011, President Obama reported to Congress that he had authorized a small number of U.S. advisors to deploy to the LRA-affected region, in consultation with national governments, to act as advisors to the militaries that are pursuing the LRA. The U.S. military advisors are working to help strengthen cooperation and information-sharing among regional forces, and to enhance the capacity of the militaries to fuse intelligence with effective operational planning. Encouraging and Facilitating LRA Defections: Over the course of this conflict, more than 12,000 former LRA fighters and abductees have been reintegrated and reunited with their families through Ugandas Amnesty Commission. The United States continues to support efforts across the affected countries to demobilize and reintegrate former LRA fighters and all those victimized by this conflict back into normal life. In Fiscal Year 2011, USAID provided nearly $2 million to support the rehabilitation of former abducted youth in CAR and the DRC and their reunification with their families. The United States is working with the United Nations, the African Union, and national governments in the region to enhance processes across the region to facilitate the safe return, repatriation, and reintegration of those who defect or escape from the LRAs ranks. Providing Humanitarian Assistance: The United States is the largest bilateral donor of humanitarian assistance to LRA-affected populations in CAR, the DRC, and South Sudan. In Fiscal Year 2011, the United States provided more than $18 million to support the provision of food assistance and implementation of food security, humanitarian protection, health, livelihoods initiatives, and other relief activities for internally displaced persons, host community members, and other populations affected by the LRA. The United States also continues to provide assistance to support the return of displaced people, reconstruction, and recovery in northern Uganda, where the LRA carried out its brutal campaign for nearly two decades until it fled Uganda in 2006. With the LRAs
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departure and Ugandan and international recovery and development efforts, northern Uganda has undergone a significant post-conflict reconstruction and recovery in just a few years. ### Mali: Tuareg rebellion forces medical staff to withdraw (BBC) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16924177 February 7, 2012 By Non-Attributed Author Medical charity Doctors of the World has pulled out of northern Mali following a recent outbreak of fighting by Tuareg rebels. The organisation told the BBC it is temporarily suspending nutrition and health services, fearing for its workers' safety. A BBC correspondent says dozens have been killed on both sides and the conflict appears to be escalating. The rebels want an autonomous region of Azawad in the Sahara desert. The Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) took up arms last month following the return of many Tuareg fighters from Libya, where they had fought with Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces. Doctors of the World, a worldwide network of volunteer medical staff, works with remote communities in the north of Mali - thousands of whom are now fleeing the fighting. "The conflict makes the situation very insecure for our teams and the population," director general Pierre Verdeeren in Belgium told the BBC's Network Africa programme. "The population is leaving so it is very difficult for us to reach them, so we decided to suspended temporarily the activities to deliver primary health care, medicine and sometimes food," he said. Medical charity Doctors of the World has pulled out of northern Mali following a recent outbreak of fighting by Tuareg rebels. The organisation told the BBC it is temporarily suspending nutrition and health services, fearing for its workers' safety. A BBC correspondent says dozens have been killed on both sides and the conflict appears to be escalating.
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The rebels want an autonomous region of Azawad in the Sahara desert. The Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) took up arms last month following the return of many Tuareg fighters from Libya, where they had fought with Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces. Doctors of the World, a worldwide network of volunteer medical staff, works with remote communities in the north of Mali - thousands of whom are now fleeing the fighting. "The conflict makes the situation very insecure for our teams and the population," director general Pierre Verdeeren in Belgium told the BBC's Network Africa programme. "The population is leaving so it is very difficult for us to reach them, so we decided to suspended temporarily the activities to deliver primary health care, medicine and sometimes food," he said. Fleeing the fighting More than 20,000 people have fled from Mali to neighbouring countries to escape the fighting, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday. Most of the 10,000 refugees in Niger are sleeping in the open with little access to shelter, clean water, food or medicine, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Adrian Edwards says. Another 9,000 have gone to Mauritania, and 3,000 to Burkina Faso - mostly northerners living in the south fearing reprisal attacks, the BBC's Martin Vogl in Bamako says. Our correspondent says the return to fighting on 17 January - after two years of relative peace - has re-ignited old ethnic tensions between southerners and northerners. The homes and businesses of some northerners in the south have been attacked. He also says the major northern town of Kidal - in the Sahara Desert - is on high alert, with the MNLA threatening to launch an offensive. The Tuareg are a nomadic community who mostly live in northern Mali, northern Niger and southern Algeria. Mali's Tuaregs have long complained that they have been marginalised by the southern government and have staged several rebellions over the years. ### 'Lone wolf' terror threat warning (BBC)
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16920643 February 7, 2012 By Non-Attributed Author The UK could face a growing threat from "lone wolf" terrorists returning from fighting overseas in the next few years, a think tank has warned. The Royal United Services Institute estimates about 50 Britons are fighting with Somali extremists al-Shabab. Returnees from "wars in Somalia, Yemen or Nigeria" could use their experience on UK streets, Rusi said. The Home Office said its security arrangements would reflect "the nature of the terrorist threat we face". It is also feared that the return of Britons from overseas could coincide with the release of people convicted of terrorist charges over the last decade. BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the think tank is warning of "a perfect storm of combined threats coming together in the near future". The UK terror threat level was reduced from "severe" to "substantial" in July last year, but Rusi warned that the threat from jihadist terrorism had not diminished. Despite recent arrests and failed plots, "lone wolves" and "self-radicalised" jihadi terrorists were hard to track down and posed a greater security risk, its report said. Rusi analyst Valentina Soria said: "There is very little which could justify complacency in the way we perceive the future threat from jihadist terrorism to the UK. "Although actual capabilities may have deteriorated, the intention to conduct large-scale attacks on British soil remains." The report also warned that UK counter-terrorism spending and staffing levels could face significant cuts after the end of the London Olympics this summer. The focus on averting a terrorist threat during the Games had postponed much-needed reform until afterwards. "The Games are both a help and a hindrance to UK counter-terrorism," said Rusi senior fellow Tobias Feakin. "A help because they have stimulated intense co-operation between the security agencies, but a hindrance because the shadow of the Olympics disguises the landscape for the years beyond.

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"As budgetary restrictions are increasingly applied across the public sector, it is almost certain that the security agencies will also have to tighten their belts." He added: "There is a sense in Whitehall that major decisions are being postponed until the event has ended in August, with an overriding priority to complete the Games without major incident. "After this, the changes for the various security organisations involved will be inevitable." On Monday, a report by the Home Affairs Committee of MPs warned the government not to neglect the threat to the UK from extreme far-right terrorism. The report said the government's strategy to combat radicalisation "only pays lip service to the threat from extreme far-right terrorism". The committee cited the growth of far-right groups with links to similar organisations in Europe. A Home Office spokeswoman said: "National security is the first duty of any government. "The UK's counter-terrorism strategy (Contest) sets out our long-term plans to deal with the threat from terrorism. It covers the build-up to the Olympics and the following three years. "Over that same period we are allocating 2bn a year to the security and intelligence agencies budget. "The [Contest] strategy is designed to be flexible and we will continue to ensure that the UK's response reflects the nature of the terrorist threat we face." ### Liberia ex-warlord George Boley to be deported from US (BBC) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16924744 February 7, 2012 By Non-Attributed Author Former Liberian rebel leader George Boley is to be deported from the US over his role in the West African country's civil war in the 1990s. A US judge said evidence that the ex-Liberian Peace Council leader had been involved in killings and recruited children was grounds for his removal. Mr Boley, who has been in custody for two years, denies the accusations.
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Around a quarter of a million people died during Liberia's 1989-2003 conflict. The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, says at the height of the civil war there were seven armed groups fighting - and the LPC was one of the largest. In 1995, Mr Boley joined other warlords, including Charles Taylor, to lead an interim council for about a year. After presidential elections in 1997, the conflict resumed. US immigration officials said it was the first time the use of child soldiers had been used as a grounds for removal from the US. The case was brought by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), which said there was evidence from Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that Mr Boley's rebel group had burned dozens of captives accused of witchcraft in 1994. Witnesses told the TRC that in 1995 Liberian Peace Council fighters massacred 27 villagers "ordering them to lie down before they slit their throats with cutlasses and raping the women before they killed them" Various organisations have reported that the LPC engaged in serious human rights abuses against the civilian population. The 1995 United States Department of State report on Human Rights Practices in Liberia documented credible reports that Boley authorised the extrajudicial executions of seven of his soldiers on 14 November 1995," it said. Mr Boley's son, George Boley Jr, told the Associated Press news agency that the judge had ignored important evidence presented on his father's behalf and said none of the specific allegations brought against him were corroborated by credible evidence. "I failed to see how initiatives of the LPC translate to human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian laws. The LPC that I know was a focused and respected body," a TRC statement at the time quoted him as saying. In its final report the TRC recommended that Mr Boley, along with other former warlords, be prosecuted as it said they all bore responsibility for the worst atrocities of the conflict. But to date no cases have been brought in Liberia, our reporter says. Mr Taylor, who won presidential elections in 1997, is on trial for war crimes at at UNbacked court sitting at The Hague for his part in neighbouring Sierra Leone's civil war. He had gone into exile in 2003 to Nigeria, where he was arrested. According to AP, Mr Boley has 30 days to appeal against the deportation ruling ###
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Explosion rocks military base in Nigeria (Al Jazeera) http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/02/201227131737968142.html February 7, 2012 By Non-Attributed author A blast has rocked an area near a military barracks in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna but the cause of the explosion and the number of casualties are still not clear, according to an official. Residents said Tuesday's incident occurred in the area of a military barracks known as the First Mechanised Division and that windows in an office complex there were shattered. "NEMA rescue team alerted to explosion at military formations in Kaduna," Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency, said in a brief statement. "Yet to confirm the nature of explosion or casualty. Relevant security working to contain the situation." The area has been cordoned off, but the office complex could be seen, residents said. "Virtually all the glass has been shattered," one resident said. "I saw soldiers with glass cuts on their bodies being taken out, but it's difficult to say if there were any [more serious] casualties." Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group, has been blamed for scores of bomb attacks in northern Nigeria. The group is waging a low-level campaign against the government and says it wants to impose Islamic law across the country of 160 million people split evenly between Muslims and Christians. An army source said earlier on Tuesday that security forces had killed eight suspected Boko Haram members in a raid on an alleged hideout of the group in Kano that prompted a five-hour shootout. The raid, on the outskirts of Nigeria's second city, was carried out Monday evening as the attackers, believed to be Boko Haram members, bombed a police station in another city neighbourhood, where they also shot an officer in the leg. "The military succeeded in killing eight gunmen, arrested five others and discovered five high-calibre bombs and 15 other low-calibre bombs. All these are homemade," the military source, who requested anonymity, said

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Residents who visited the alleged Boko Haram hideout in Kano's Mariri neighbourhood told the AFP news agency that parts of the floor were blood-stained. The military source said some attackers escaped during the raid and that security forces found a large cache of guns and ammunition inside. "The first indications are that this is an armoury for the sect," the source said. ### Kidnapped Chinese workers released in Sudan (France 24) http://www.france24.com/en/20120207-kidnapped-chinese-workers-freed-sudan-southkordofan-state-embassy-kenya February 7, 2012 By News Wires AFP - A group of Chinese workers "kidnapped" by rebels in southern Sudan 11 days ago have been freed and flown to Kenya, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday. The Sudanese authorities allowed a Red Cross plane to take them from Kauda to Nairobi ... this Tuesday morning where they were given to the Chinese embassy there," the statement said. The statement did not give the number of Chinese freed. The Kauda area in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan state has been the scene of fighting since June between government troops and rebels formerly aligned with the rulers of now independent South Sudan. Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi told AFP he would comment later Tuesday, but the release comes a day after he said he expected the 29 Chinese workers to be released "very soon." Lodi said on Monday the rebels were in communication with the Chinese government, although not through a six-member mission sent by Beijing to Khartoum to help secure a release. The captives, who were involved in a road-building project in South Kordofan, had been held since January 28 when the SPLM-N destroyed a Sudanese military convoy between Rashad town and Al-Abbasiya and took over the area, the rebels said. A spokeswoman for the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) declined to comment except to say: "We are not involved in negotiations" over the Chinese. The SPLM-N maintained that all 29 Chinese were safe during their captivity.
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According to China's official Xinhua news agency, the workers were taken after a rebel attack on their camp. It reported on Monday that Beijing had been informed by Sudanese authorities that the body of one Chinese, who went missing in the attack, had been found. That person was apparently not among the 29 captured. Sudanese official media carried similar reports citing the South Kordofan state government. Chinese embassy officials in Khartoum could not be reached on Tuesday. Last week, SPLM-N chairman Malik Agar met a Chinese diplomat and asked Beijing to use its influence with Khartoum to help badly needed aid to reach the war zone, Lodi said. Agar held the talks in Addis Ababa with the Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia. China is Sudan's major trading partner, the largest buyer of Sudanese oil and a key military supplier to the Khartoum regime. Sudan has severely restricted the work of foreign relief agencies in South Kordofan and nearby Blue Nile state, where a similar war began in September. About 30,000 people fled when the rebels took control of villages in the Al-Abbasiya area on January 28, the United Nations said. The UN has backed statements by the United States that there could be a famine unless urgent aid is allowed to enter South Kordofan and Blue Nile. . ### Thousands rally in Dakar for new anti-Wade protests (France 24) http://www.france24.com/en/20120207-dakar-anti-wade-protests-third-term-senegalpresidential-election February 7, 2012 By AFP AFP - Thousands of Senegalese opposition supporters marched through central Dakar Tuesday to ratchet up the pressure for President Abdoulaye Wade to abandon his bid for a controversial third term in office. The 85-year-old president's camp planned to strike back later Tuesday with a gathering outside the presidential palace, one of his electoral campaign managers said, without giving further details.
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Several thousand opposition supporters began a march outside Dakar university, and had planned to make their way to the interior ministry which is a few blocks away from the presidential palace. However the government has banned the protesters from entering the suburb where the interior ministry is located, said Cheikh Tidiane Dieye, a leader of the anti-Wade June 23 Movement (M23). Senegalese music icon Youssou Ndour, whose bid to stand in the February 26 presidential election was rejected by the west African state's top court, was at the march along with several opposition candidates. Dozens of police were out keeping a close watch on the march, the latest in a wave of protests in the run-up to the election in a country generally regarded as one of Africa's most stable democracies. Opposition protests last week descended into riots, leaving four people dead as tension flared over Wade's third term candidacy which the opposition says is unconstitutional. The Constitutional Council on January 27 upheld Wade's assertion that changes to the constitution in 2008 meant he could run again despite having served two terms already. The opposition has vowed to force Wade to withdraw and the leader, who has styled himself as a pan-African statesman, has received little sympathy from his erstwhile western allies. Both the United States and France have expressed disappointment in his plans to run again, and urged a generational change in the country's highest office. Wade, who says he needs another term to fulfill his promise to turn Senegal into a developed nation, has heaped scorn both on opposition protests and those from abroad. "I do not seek the interest of the toubabs (Westerners), but that of the Senegalese people," he said Sunday at the launch of the election campaign. Eight opposition candidates as well as Ndour have decided to wage a common campaign for the vote. uring an M23 meeting on Monday, one of the candidates, Cheikh Tidiane Gadio, Wade's former foreign minister, said if the president took part in the vote the opposition would refuse to recognise him. "If Abdoulaye Wade persists, we will not recognise him, nor recognise his government and we will organise a campaign for the recognition of a national transition council which we will create," he said.
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He also suggested the holding of a parallel election among opposition candidates. "The only way to serve Senegal with honour and dignity is to oppose Abdoulaye Wade's unconstitutional candidacy to the end." Wade was first elected in 2000 after 25 years in opposition. But initial euphoria over his election has given way to fatigue over corruption, electricity cuts, rising fuel and food prices while Wade focuses on big legacy construction projects using what a US diplomatic cable published on Wikileaks refers to as "pie in the sky" rhetoric. He is also accused of trying to groom his son Karim Wade as his successor. Elections Minister Cheikh Gueye's ministry meanwhile said that election material such as ballot papers had arrived for the poll in which some five million voters will choose among 14 candidates. ### Somalia: Saving Somalia? - Reflections On the Last 20 Years, and the Upcoming 'London Conference' (All Africa) http://allafrica.com/stories/201202070843.html February 7, 2012 By Richard Dowden If I were a Somali I would thank Allah for the pirates. For more than 20 years the world has stood by while successive civil wars destroyed the country, killing hundreds of thousands of people by bullets, disease and starvation and reducing what was once a prosperous land to a war zone. But the seizure of more than 200 ships by kids with guns in small craft has changed all that. Britain, for whom shipping and trade around the Red Sea and the Gulf are vital national interests, has decided to take action. Pirates, the government has realised, cannot be stopped as long as their land bases are not ruled by a government. But on land the government is under attack from Islamic fundamentalists who are recruiting and training terrorists. So a political solution must now be found for Somalia. So declared William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, clad in flack jacket and helmet, in Mogadishu last Thursday. The search will begin at a conference in London on February 23rd. At last. And what a conference it will be. Some 40 heads of government have been invited to Lancaster House. This was where traditionally former British territories negotiated their independence, but in a curious irony of history, this conference will instead discuss the take-over of Somalia. At least that is what the Italians, the former rulers of southern Somalia, want.
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Somalia has been at war since the late 1980s when rebel movements fought the government of Siad Barre. He fled, but then they fell out with each other and the country broke up. The North West, the old British-ruled Somaliland, re-established that state and declared independence. The rest of the north, Puntland, is also relatively peaceful and rules itself but awaits the re-establishment of a Somali state. So does some of the centre. But in the south and the capital, Mogadishu, there have been only two periods of peace. One followed the American invasion in 1992 after the first famine. But after losing 18 members of special forces - the Blackhawk Down incident - President Bill Clinton pulled out the US force and stopped supporting UN peacekeeping there. Somalia was left to stew. The second peace period was a few months in 2006 when a united mass uprising threw out the warlords and their rapacious armies. Governance was taken over by local Islamic courts which gradually formed themselves into the Islamic Courts Union. For a few months people were able to walk the streets safely. Peace reigned and trade and investment began to flow. But with US support, the Ethiopians, who have no interest in a strong united Somalia, invaded, broke up the courts and installed a warlord as president. The wars resumed. The cost of neglect has been immense. According to a recent report from the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank, the death toll from the wars is between 450,000 and 1.5 million and some 2 million displaced. The accumulative cost of Somalia's collapse has been more than $55 billion, including $22 billion from piracy. $13 billion has been spent on humanitarian aid which is almost matched by the estimated amount Somalis outside the country send back in remittances. After the Ethiopians were forced to withdraw, the world handed Somalia over to Africa. Never has the phrase "African solutions to African problems" been used so cynically. Ugandan and Burundian troops under an African Union flag, died protecting a few square kilometres of Mogadishu in the pretence there was a government there to protect. There wasn't. The so-called government lives in luxury hotels and apartments in Nairobi. According to a recent audit of the Somali government in 2009 - 10, 96% - yes Ninety Six per cent! - of direct bilateral assistance disappeared, presumably stolen by corrupt politicians and officials. An official report by the UN Monitoring Group said: "The endemic corruption of the leadership of the Transitional Federal institutions... is the greatest impediment to the emergence of a cohesive transitional authority and effective state institutions." But it is these people who will be coming to Lancaster House on February 23rd. At the same time we know that in much of Somalia there are very strong civil society organisations led by highly respected men and women. They however will not be invited. So perhaps the first thing this great conference should do is apologise to the people of Somalia for ignoring their plight for so long. The second is to usher Somalia's
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professional politicians into the garden or off to smart hotels and bring in some Somalis who really represent the interests of the country and its long-suffering people. Richard Dowden is Director of the Royal African Society. ### Cameroon: Economy Suffers As Boko Haram Infiltrates Country (All Africa) http://allafrica.com/stories/201202071288.html February 7, 2012 By Ngala Killian Chimtom Yaounde Ahmadou Lamine has been forced to close his business selling fuel imported from Nigeria, known locally as "zoa-zoa", because of the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram. Lamine, from Maroua, the capital of Cameroon's Far North Region, ran out of stock after Nigeria temporarily closed its border with Cameroon's northern region. The move came after the Christmas Day bombings of Nigeria's churches by Boko Haram, which killed dozens of people. "Motor bike riders who used to supply us with zoa-zoa from neighbouring Nigeria couldn't do so anymore. I was forced to shut my business premises," Lamine told IPS. "I don't know how I am going to cope with paying the rent on my house, let alone feed my family and pay my children's school fees," he added. The closure of the border has had a negative economic impact on this region. Fuel prices here have doubled, jumping from fifty cents a litre to about one dollar. And a similar trend is recorded with other imports from Nigeria like sugar, milk, flour, beverages, sweets and oranges. "It's difficult," Alima Aissatou, a housewife in Maroua told IPS. She pointed to her nearempty basket that would have previously been filled with food purchased from Maroua's main market. "How do you feed a family with this?" she asked. The closure of the border is not only affecting businesses and households, it has also led to a reduction in customs revenue. The interim Customs Bureau Chief for Maroua, Philemon Tamfu, told IPS that the impact of the border closure was most felt "in Limani, Fotokol, Kolofata and Kouseri, all border towns in the Far North Region where all (customs) entries and exits are recorded." Speaking to IPS by phone, the Customs Bureau Chief for Limani, Alain Symphorien Nzie, said that the area used to receive 239,000 dollars every 10 days in customs revenue, averaging 718,000 dollars a month. But a few weeks after the border was closed, it could barely manage to generate 50,000 dollars. Limani, a border town, is home to citizens of Cameroon and Nigeria.
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"I had to improvise all means possible to come up with the 50,000 dollars. This amount is likely to keep on dropping if the blockage continues," he said of the minimum quota that customs departments need to meet. A similar trend has been noticed in the border town of Fotokol. Instead of the 40,000 dollars that is usually collects over the first 10 days of January, only 4,000 dollars was received. International news agency CNN quoted trade and customs officials in Maroua as saying that nearly 80 percent of its regional economy has shrunk since the closure of the borders. Nigeria's borders with Cameroon remain sealed as Africa's most populous nation fears that the extremist group Boko Haram might be using the northern parts of Cameroon as a base. This comes after the unearthing of a cache of arms, suspected to have been smuggled in from Cameroon, in Borno State, Nigeria. The arms included AK47 rifles, pistols, rocket launchers, bombs, and detonating bomb cables. Cameroon's government is concerned that the extremist group could be infiltrating and establishing itself in the country. Wikileaks revealed that President Paul Biya raised the concerns in a conversation with United States Ambassador to Cameroon, Janet Garvey. "Biya was concerned about the threat of Islamic extremism ...He was beginning to worry about Islamic extremists infiltrating Cameroon from Nigeria through Cameroon's mosques," Wikileaks stated. The former minister for Territorial Administration and Decentralization, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, also expressed similar fears to the ambassador. He reportedly said: "there were a lot of desperate people among the Muslim communities in the North, and Douala in particular, and some of them had unexplained money." Douala is the country's economic capital. Evidence on the ground suggests that Boko Haram has already infiltrated Cameroon. In Lagdo, a locality in the Far North Region, villagers have reported that people with long beads and red or black headscarves have been combing the area and spreading the group's extremist doctrine. "They came here and told me that all our problems are caused by western education and western ideas," a resident of Lagdo told IPS, as he cast a furtive glance around. "They also said they will give me a lot of money if I joined their group. They looked dangerous, so I lied that I would consider their proposal. I am afraid that they may come again." The threat of the group's infiltration of Cameroon has put security, political and traditional authorities on the alert.
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On. Jan 19, the governor of the North Region, Gambo Haman, said: "the Boko Haram being chased from Nigeria's northeast, as well as thousands of runaway Chadian soldiers in irregular situations here, must be closely monitored to avoid unwanted trouble throughout the national territory." He said surveillance has been reinforced and many Quran learning centres were shut down, and their teachers are being closely monitored by security intelligence. The Nigerian newspaper, Sunday Tribune, reported on Jan. 29 that Cameroon security forces had recently blocked an attempt by 25 itinerant Arabic teachers to cross into Cameroon. "We stone-walled them," the source reportedly said. Meanwhile, government authorities are liaising with religious groups to guard against the group. The senior Divisional Officer for Wouri in Douala, Bernard Okalia Bilai, convened a meeting of Imams and Muslim community leaders to jointly come up with strategies to stop the group's infiltration of Cameroon. "Their doctrine is anti-social," Bilai said. "It is a doctrine that persuades young graduates to rip up their degrees...It is a doctrine that condemns what today constitutes the values of our society. Top authorities of the country don't accept that such hateful dogma is established in our communities...we must be vigilant." But these efforts may be too little, too late. In an exclusive interview with the UKnewspaper The Guardian on Jan. 27, a senior member of Boko Haram disclosed that recruits from Cameroon, Chad and Niger have already joined the group. ### Mozambique sees $50 bln gas investment over a decade (Reuters) http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE81609Q20120207 February 7, 2012 CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Mozambique expects $50 billion to be spent developing its liquid natural gas (LNG) industry over the next ten years, the southern African nation's mineral resource minister said on Tuesday. "The holders of the concessions have plans to implement projects for the export of 20 million tonnes a year of liquid natural gas which will require investments of about $50 billion during this decade," Esperanca Bias told an African mining conference. In November, U.S. oil company Anadarko Petroleum Corp bumped up its resource estimate for its major gas finds offshore of fast-growing Mozambique. ###
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DOD Needs Cost-conscious Acquisitions Employees, Official Says (Defense.gov) http://www.defense.gov//News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=67093 February 7, 2012 By Lisa Daniel American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2012 The Defense Department acquisitions, technology and logistics office will need some of the brightest, most cost-conscious workers asking tough, introspective questions to meet the strategic and budgetary demands of the future, the offices acting director said here yesterday. In remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Frank Kendall outlined the offices way forward under the administrations 10-year military strategy guidance and amid shrinking budget forecasts. Kendall is President Barack Obamas nominee to succeed Ashton B. Carter -- now the deputy defense secretary -- as undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, technology and logistics. Acquisitions is not a science, he said. There is a lot of art to this. We do very hard things that have never been done before. Theres always going to be a learning process, but until we start examining carefully the impact of our policies, were not going to learn enough from our experiences to put good things in place. Kendall said many of the departments acquisitions problems stem from a culture that hasnt emphasized cost consciousness enough. He said a fighter pilot recently told him that every September, his unit would fly around burning up fuel, because any fuel left when the new budget year started Oct. 1 would be seen as excess, and the fuel allocation would then be cut for the next year. Thats not the kind of culture we want, he added. Kendall said he has spoken with all the service chiefs to elevate the abilities, characteristics and prestige of the acquisitions workforce. It is, in many cases, rocket science, he said. It takes true professionalism to make this work. Leadership qualities have everything to do with success or failure. Also, Kendall said, he is working with the Joint Staff to make acquisitions requirements specific, translatable, and feasible. Sometimes requirements are so vague, there is no way to translate it onto a contract, he said, so then industry defines what it means. When the administrations proposed cuts in projected defense spending rose to $487 billion over 10 years, Pentagon officials had to take a new look at the way forward, Kendall said. We had to step back at that point, because the cuts were so deep, and look at our fundamental strategy, he added.
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Kendall said Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, believe strongly that the right approach is to build toward a goal, as opposed to just making cuts. So we asked the question, What do we want the Defense Department to look like in 2020? he said. That question was answered with the new military strategy guidance unveiled last month that outlines a smaller, more agile and flexible military focused on the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. For the acquisitions and technology picture, Kendall said, it is a military that no longer spends billions of dollars on major weapons systems that are seriously over budget and off schedule. Because the presidents fiscal 2013 budget proposal is to be presented to Congress next week, Kendall said, he would not go into specifics about it in yesterdays forum. There probably will be some fine tuning, he said, but I think we got it about right, and we have good evidence for the choices we made. They were painful. Some of them were extremely painful. But we tended to emphasize the positive. The administrations budget proposal maintains all recapitalization and modernization requirements, Kendall said, and all the programs we still have, we very much need. The acquisitions office was prepared for the cuts because of the work it started in 2010 when then-Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced streamlining measures. Panetta has carried those measures through since succeeding Gates, Kendall said. Kendalls highest priority, he said, is to strengthen the federal acquisitions workforce. Other priorities include strengthening the military industrial base, preserving technical superiority and buying into only affordable and dependable programs. We have to move forward, he said. The times are such that to do anything else would be irresponsible. ### END REPORT

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